Distant Worlds 2 - Showcase

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Ranbir
Looks like a lot more scrolling for the research tree now x_x

If you like scrolling, sure, but the navigation buttons and click to move to queued project aids really help. I find it easier to navigate than the old split research three, all told.

[Cauldyth]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

For those interested, here's the Ackdarian Ship Identification Sheet we showed in the stream:

So purty...

[Hanekem]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Handbanana
THIS! OMG im loving it. They are borrowing some stuff from Stellaris, but I like it.

I didn't actually realize this was also in Stellaris, but FWIW this was part of the DW2 plan since before Stellaris was released. I guess you pick from one of three or four visible projects there each time you pick, but under the hood, so to speak, it works in a similar way? A version of this has also been done in other games in the past - research where you only see the next possible project and where the paths can change is not a new idea we came up with, but we loved the idea of it as an option for DW and implemented it in the way we felt best suited to DW.

Regards,

- Erik

To a point, Stellaris uses a card system for research projects. when a proyect completes you get a number of techs that you have access to, there is no tech tree, no visibility and a random angle that you might get the option to, say, research power armor this time but if you don't take the pick you might not get it in the next draw


I do have one question about the ship hulls, these are research items? I undesrtand that having fire angles and 3d models make it more or less a need to have a max number of hardpoint for stuff (weapons and engines, at the very least, things that are in the ships guts, are in the ships guts) but I am worried about the armor and hull factor of the ships, this is an arbitrary factor (hull is 10% armor using the most advanced armor, or not) or can we tinker with it?
if you are going for the latter, creating variants of Hull-X (as opposed to creating a variant of an existent ship), would that be an instant generation or some sort of research "project" (not necesarily a research, but, dunno needing a yard to chug out a hull before you can customize it)

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Ranbir
Am I crazy or do the planets no longer orbit their stars?

I explained this a bit in the stream Q&A, but bottom line is that the the planets still rotate, but they no longer have animated orbits.

Partly this is due to the change in scale, the rest comes down to the difference between having things look ok in 2D where ships and stations moved through each other all the time vs. nice 3D where they need to avoid colliding, enter hangars and docking bays properly, exit construction yards, etc.

Having the orbits match up with the more realistic scale would have meant they would be slow enough that you likely wouldn't notice the movement easily, while at the same time any movement would create a lot more challenges for us in terms of the new 3D mechanism for docking of ships in spaceports and near planets and collision avoidance. We decided ultimately that it wasn't worth adding extremely slow orbits to create a huge amount of extra bugs and work to account for that when we could spend that limited time better elsewhere on other more noticeable features. It's not impossible that orbits may return at some future date, but it's not in the plans right now.

Regards,

- Erik

[Ranbir]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Ranbir
Am I crazy or do the planets no longer orbit their stars?

I explained this a bit in the stream Q&A, but bottom line is that the the planets still rotate, but they no longer have animated orbits.

Partly this is due to the change in scale, the rest comes down to the difference between having things look ok in 2D where ships and stations moved through each other all the time vs. nice 3D where they need to avoid colliding, enter hangars and docking bays properly, exit construction yards, etc.

Having the orbits match up with the more realistic scale would have meant they would be slow enough that you likely wouldn't notice the movement easily, while at the same time any movement would create a lot more challenges for us in terms of the new 3D mechanism for docking of ships in spaceports and near planets and collision avoidance. We decided ultimately that it wasn't worth adding extremely slow orbits to create a huge amount of extra bugs and work to account for that when we could spend that limited time better elsewhere on other more noticeable features. It's not impossible that orbits may return at some future date, but it's not in the plans right now.

Regards,

- Erik

Yeah I edited my post once I got to the bit in the video. I understand the reasonings and I can appreciate the trade offs in what ships do now.

I do hope it returns! It was one of the (many) unique things that DW had over other games. What ballpark in terms of financial incentive to put it in the plans? [:D]

Also is that work possible in modding or is it too core?

[SirHoraceHarkness]

ORIGINAL: Ranbir

Also is that work possible in modding or is it too core?

I too am wondering how far under the hood they will let us this time. It was pretty in depth last time so hopefully it will be the same or even more expansive.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Ranbir
Yeah I edited my post once I got to the bit in the video. I understand the reasonings and I can appreciate the trade offs in what ships do now.

I do hope it returns! It was one of the (many) unique things that DW had over other games. What ballpark in terms of financial incentive to put it in the plans? [:D]

Not sure on that, we'll see what our thoughts are on all this after release as well as the beta and release feedback we get.

Also is that work possible in modding or is it too core?

No, this would be too core to the game in too many ways. It's something really only Elliot could do as far as getting it connected code-wise in all the right places.

Regards,

- Erik

[Ric119]

Game looks amazing, signed up for beta to help you guys improve it. Two questions I have are:

1) As the humans, will they have our Solar system or the option to start in our sol system?

2)In terms of modding, will we be able to overhaul mod the game e.g create a full star wars or star trek mod for the game akin to New Horizons or Fallen Republic?

Thanks for the time.

[Miletkir]

A screenshot of planetary invasion would be nice before the Beta starts.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Ric119
1) As the humans, will they have our Solar system or the option to start in our sol system?

Well, these aren't exactly "us". In DW lore terms, the ancient humans were more directly connected to Earth and sadly as a result of how the ancient timeline ended you probably wouldn't recognize that solar system in present-day DW. Thus for this release, there likely won't be our system as an option, but if/when we add the more ancient storyline back in, it would make sense to include that then and might make sense in general to add the option to have "defined" rather than procedurally generated home systems as an option. We have some tech that allows for some of that for story purposes already.

2)In terms of modding, will we be able to overhaul mod the game e.g create a full star wars or star trek mod for the game akin to New Horizons or Fallen Republic?

Yes, that should be entirely possible.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Miletkir
A screenshot of planetary invasion would be nice before the Beta starts.

Sorry, keeping that under wraps for a while longer.

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[Ric119]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Ric119
1) As the humans, will they have our Solar system or the option to start in our sol system?

Well, these aren't exactly "us". In DW lore terms, the ancient humans were more directly connected to Earth and sadly as a result of how the ancient timeline ended you probably wouldn't recognize that solar system in present-day DW. Thus for this release, there likely won't be our system as an option, but if/when we add the more ancient storyline back in, it would make sense to include that then and might make sense in general to add the option to have "defined" rather than procedurally generated home systems as an option. We have some tech that allows for some of that for story purposes already.

2)In terms of modding, will we be able to overhaul mod the game e.g create a full star wars or star trek mod for the game akin to New Horizons or Fallen Republic?

Yes, that should be entirely possible.

Awesome! And thanks for the response [:)]

[SirHoraceHarkness]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Miletkir
A screenshot of planetary invasion would be nice before the Beta starts.

Sorry, keeping that under wraps for a while longer.

Is this a hint that planetary battles will be somewhat more involved that watching two sides of icons march on each other? Not expecting a full blown mini rts mode but some measure of tactics would be nice. [8D]

[popgea]

Can't wait for beta and will purchase as soon as available. The fleet battle was really impressive in that I felt I was actually watching something in sci-fi. Even more exciting were the hints at the overlays to really get a visual representation of your space, managing fleets for defense and security is one of my favorite parts of DW.

[Hanekem]

Hmmm... what do we know about the titans in ground combat? I reall wish we could avoid the whole "mech" thing (and use some sort of latter mark bolo instead) or the whole interactions and, I am guessing combined arms thing that was implied in the stream

I do have one question about the ship hulls, these are research items? we will be needing to research the hulls in particular? or just classes and we would get some sort of general hull patterns?
I am a bit unsure about the hull's hp and armor, are those to be inherent? or will we be able to modify? (or create hull variants?)
Will we still have a max construct-able size?

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Hanekem
Hmmm... what do we know about the titans in ground combat? I reall wish we could avoid the whole "mech" thing (and use some sort of latter mark bolo instead) or the whole interactions and, I am guessing combined arms thing that was implied in the stream

Titans can mean different things for different factions. They are a later game troop type and certainly expand the possible interactions and strategies for ground combat.

I do have one question about the ship hulls, these are research items? we will be needing to research the hulls in particular? or just classes and we would get some sort of general hull patterns?
I am a bit unsure about the hull's hp and armor, are those to be inherent? or will we be able to modify? (or create hull variants?)
Will we still have a max construct-able size?

Yes, the hulls are researchable as construction research projects, but there are multiple variant hulls per role. For example, there are four different frigate hull variants, some variants are more general and well-rounded in terms of component bays, some are more specialized.

Each hull variant both has a maximum size it unlocks for that role and a different set of possible component bays. In most cases, especially for hulls like military ships and stations, you will have more bays than you can really fill within your maximum hull size and what you focus on is up to you.

Each hull has an innate amount of structural "hull size" which can absorb damage directed at the hull. It also has an innate reactive armor value. You can add to a ship's defenses and armor through the various defense components.

Your max constructable size depends on the hulls you have research for a particular role. Some scale up to be quite large, equal or greater than the max size in DW1, others have a more limited scale.

Here's a screenshot showing some frigate variants which will hopefully help this make more sense:

[popgea]

Quick question I always wondered, will it be possible to mod the overlays and galactic map screens? I always envisioned a data scientist or visualization designer really being able to do great things with the amount of data in play.

[Whiskiz]

A bit late to the party but that's what you get for living in Aussie land, at least i still have the stream to watch for the first time [:'(]

[Hanekem]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Hanekem
Hmmm... what do we know about the titans in ground combat? I reall wish we could avoid the whole "mech" thing (and use some sort of latter mark bolo instead) or the whole interactions and, I am guessing combined arms thing that was implied in the stream

Titans can mean different things for different factions. They are a later game troop type and certainly expand the possible interactions and strategies for ground combat.

I do have one question about the ship hulls, these are research items? we will be needing to research the hulls in particular? or just classes and we would get some sort of general hull patterns?
I am a bit unsure about the hull's hp and armor, are those to be inherent? or will we be able to modify? (or create hull variants?)
Will we still have a max construct-able size?

Yes, the hulls are researchable as construction research projects, but there are multiple variant hulls per role. For example, there are four different frigate hull variants, some variants are more general and well-rounded in terms of component bays, some are more specialized.

Each hull variant both has a maximum size it unlocks for that role and a different set of possible component bays. In most cases, especially for hulls like military ships and stations, you will have more bays than you can really fill within your maximum hull size and what you focus on is up to you.

Each hull has an innate amount of structural "hull size" which can absorb damage directed at the hull. It also has an innate reactive armor value. You can add to a ship's defenses and armor through the various defense components.

Your max constructable size depends on the hulls you have research for a particular role. Some scale up to be quite large, equal or greater than the max size in DW1, others have a more limited scale.

Here's a screenshot showing some frigate variants which will hopefully help this make more sense:

So the hull research items would be some sort of continuous research? that is to say you could research improved Frigates to get better and better hulls? or would they be distinct research projects?

As for the variants... it feels rather restrictive, I'd rather have some way of setting up the variants myself, with the main research providing the basic hull type and max component space
Seeing the image, there seems to be a total component space of 26, (I'd have expected a differential between standard and large bays, but seems it isn't the case) so being able to make a Frigate variant (with an assumed max and minimum number for each slot) doesn't seem to be something that would add too much complexity (and AI players could still use the predefined)